LOCAL AREA FOOD DRIVE

Pound For Pound, Local Manufacturers Deliver(Excerpt from Caledonian Record, photo/written by Todd Wellington)

Representatives from area manufacturers gather at the St. Johnsbury food shelf to donate thousands of pounds of food.
From left are Casey Daniels and Boyd Bean of NSA Industries, Bill Stimpson of Weidmann,
Zachary Kadamus of Northeast Precision, Bernie Hubbard of Wei­dmann, Jim Brown of Kennametal,
Joe Patrissi of Northeast Kingdom Community Action and Weidmann chief executive John Goodrich

It was a friendly competition and a winner was declared, but there were no losers on Friday at the St. Johnsbury Food Shelf on Lincoln Street when trucks of all shapes and sizes from six area manufacturers rolled in carrying 15,251 pounds of non-perishable food.

The competition lasted 10 days and involved donations of food from each manufacturer’s employees. Weidmann, the company with the most employees came in first with over 7,000 pounds gathered, but Weidmann General Manager Bill Stimpson said everyone who played was a winner.

“I’m just glad we were all able to raise this much for the community,” said Stimpson, who started the competition by issuing a friendly challenge to other area manufacturers including Kennametal, NSA Industries, Fair-banks Scales, Northeast Precision and Vermont Aerospace.

Joe Patrissi, executive director of Northeast Kingdom Community Action, which operates the food shelf in its facility on Lincoln Street, said the massive food delivery couldn’t have come at a better time.

“It’s really going to make a big difference,” said Patrissi. “This is really a challenging time for low income people. People are short on food. It really, really, really is a great help.”

Representing their manufacturers at the St. Johnsbury shop-off were Casey Daniels and Boyd Bean from NSA Industries, Stimpson, Bernie Hubbard, and chief executive John Goodrich of Weidmann, Zachary Kadamus of Northeast Precision and Jim Brown of Lyndonville’s Kennametal plant.

Stimpson said he was pleased with the turnout from all the companies and said next year could be even better.